Single-Family House Exemption to Labor Law Action Applied

In finding the homeowner’s exemption of Labor Law 240(1) and 240 applied to work on a single-family house in which the business owners lived and from which the defendant business derived no income, the Second Department wrote:

Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241, which impose certain nondelegable safety duties upon “contractors[,] owners and their agents,” specifically exempt “owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work.” Here, Green Chimneys [defendant] demonstrated its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law with respect to, inter alia, its claim that it was entitled to the homeowner’s exemption of Labor Law §§ 240(1) and 241 by establishing that the Founder’s House was a single-family dwelling used solely as a residence for Green Chimneys’ founder and his wife, the house served no commercial or business use for Green Chimneys, which received no income from the house, and Green Chimneys did not direct or control the work being performed…. Parise v Green Chimneys Children’s Servs, Inc, 2014 NY Slip Op 03649, 2nd Dept, 5-22-13